Rossi: “One of the best races of my career”

Sunday, 10 October 2010

The Italian took his 46th MotoGP win with Yamaha in the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix on Sunday, after mounting a fantastic fight-back to achieve victory.

Valentino Rossi’s second victory of the season came on a track at which the Italian has enjoyed great success in the past when he won at Sepang on Sunday, and the result will go down as one of the 31 year-old’s great displays.

Rossi could do little to stop Jorge Lorenzo from taking the 2010 title but with victory achieved his 46th win with Yamaha, recovering from a second-row start which had seen him drop to 11th on the opening lap to mount a stirring comeback.

“I want to say congratulations to Yamaha and to Jorge; he has been fast all season, at all tracks and in all conditions and he deserves to be the World Champion,” said Rossi, who went on to discuss his own result.

"This is a wonderful moment for me, I am so happy to win like this and take my 46th win with Yamaha on ‘my' M1,” added the Italian, who has now won at Sepang six times in the premier class – four of those with Yamaha.

Reviewing his phenomenal climb through the order, Rossi continued: “It was one of my worst starts and for a moment I was really worried, but within a few corners I understood that I could go for it, because my bike felt great today thanks to a small change we made in warm-up. Jeremy's (Burgess, chief mechanic) idea really worked!”

“I rode so well and it was a fantastic race, one of the best of my career I think. I wanted this 46th win so much because as everyone knows it's a special number for me! Thanks to my team because everyone worked so hard this weekend and I think this is a great repayment for everyone. To win like this, from 11th at the first corner, is a great feeling.”

With the result Rossi moved into third in the Championship standings, where he now lies 47 points off second-placed Dani Pedrosa with three rounds remaining.